On
8/8/2001 Alex DeDominic took me as a passenger in his RV-6 N727LV (pictured below) along with Jay Pratt in his RV-6 on a day trip from Dallas, TX to
Hutchinson, KS to see the Cosmosphere Space Museum.

I am a manned space program history fanatic.
I'm in awe of everything the United States did in space in the early '60s and '70s. For reasons I don't understand, one
of the largest collections of US and Soviet space hardware has been put on
display in Hutchinson, KS, just about dead smack center of the country.

I
took a Wednesday as a vacation day from work, climbed in Alex's N727LV at 7:30am,
began taxiing at 7:34am and was airborn from Arlington Muni
(GKY) at 7:39am pointed toward cheap gas at Gainesville, TX (GLE).

Alex is an air traffic controller by trade and
gave me some helpful tips concerning what he likes to hear from pilots when they
call up for a transition request or flight following. At least for me, the
whole class B experience is a little overwhelming at times (remember, I'm a
fairly new pilot), but I found his advice and tips very helpful. We
contacted approach with a short "Fort Worth Approach, N727LV
request." Alex requested and received flight following, got a squawk
code, and was routed to GLE toot-sweet. We passed right over the top of
Texas' new NASCAR mecca - The Texas Motor Speedway. He made it look
easy....I'm going to need some practice.

Around
8:00 we were on the ground in GLE for $1.79 avgas. Met Tom Shad at the
pump, a RV-8 builder. I noticed he was wearing an Omega
Speedmaster Professional (the NASA
moon watch). This was, I thought to myself, a good omen. We were
off again at 8:30am, got flight following, climbed to 6,500ft and pointed
towards Hutchinson (HUT) 245nm away. Alex punched in HUT in the ol' Apollo
SL60 that is tied into his Navaid single-axis autopilot, trimmed for level
flight and turned on George. We crossed over the top of
Oklahoma City around 9:15am at 165kts making sure to stay clear of Vance AFB's
MOA, and started our decent into HUT at 10:02am, touching down at 10:12am.

We taxied up to the control tower and walked
inside, where Carl Nelson of Wells Aircraft greeted us. While we were
eating some of the free chocolate chip cookies he asked if we were 'those guys from Dallas who called about ground transportation to the
museum'. He said the courtesy car had a time limit for use but that he
would have one of the line guys drive us in - one Brandon Taggart. The museum is about 3 miles from the airport and we were
standing outside the entrance by 10:20. Total time from GLE to HUT in
the air - 1.7 hrs.

Note
Alex here clearly following posted instructions. When you walk into
the museum the first thing you see is a Lockheed SR-71 - specifically
#961. Here's where I plug a great web site, as the Blackbird is my
all-time favorite non-RV aircraft. Go to http://www.habu.org/
if you have any interest in these unbelievable planes. Understandably, I
took a LOT of pictures of the Habu, so I'll just put a little clump of them
here...

SR-71 pictures

Next stop: A Soviet procedures
trainer. Unbelievably, three people fit in this ball.

Next: A Space Shuttle tire. This
tire goes from 0 to 225mph in .1 seconds. Notice the area that is worn
completely through the tire - called the 'Spin Up Point'. The life cycle
of a shuttle tire is, understandably, one landing.

A Lunar Lander. This was one of the
engineering test vehicles built at Grumman in Long Island. I just
finished a book written by Tom Kelley, the LEM program manager. In the
book Mr. Kelley says conceptualizing and designing it was an engineering
dream, building it an engineering nightmare. The walls of the LEM in
some spots was the thickness of three sheets of aluminum foil. You could
punch your fist through it with no problem. When it was pressurized on
the Moon it creeked and groaned. Can you imagine Gene Cernan and
Harrison Schmitt of Apollo 17 on the surface in one of these for three days,
sleeping in shirtsleeves in hammocks? In the lower corner of the picture
is one of the rovers (this one also a engineering mockup). They cost
6,000,000 each and were built by Boeing. The first 4X4.

V1 Buzzbomb

Bet you didn't know that the first Russian in
space had to, upon re-entry eject at 22,000ft. Here's an actual Soviet
space test article.

Gemini cockpit. Frank Borman (who will be
judging RV's at the Land of Enchantment RV Fly-In in Las Cruces, NM on Sept
14,15,16) spent 14 days in one of these with Jim Lovell to test long duration
effects on the human body. They announced their engagement when they
landed <g>.

How the Soviets pulled off the first space walk - a canvas sack!

LEM procedure trainer.

One of the three 'White Rooms'. Picture this
room over 350 feet off the ground up against the door on the command module of
the Saturn V rocket. In this very spot was where 1/3rd of the final
handshakes and hugs were doled out as men journeyed into Earth orbit and later to the Moon. Exact records weren't kept as to which
missions used which white room, so we'll never know. My thoughts went from
the tragedy of the Apollo 1 fire to the nervousness of Apollo 11 to the sadness
of the final
mission Apollo 17. Quite a lot of history departed from within these steel
walls. Apparently, Jay and Alex are ready and willing to go when called.

The Apollo 13 Command ModuleA highlight of the trip. This isn't a model or copy - it is the ACTUAL Apollo 13 command module 'Odyssey'. As you
know, they were lucky to get back alive. Needless to say I took a few pics.
The last one is 1,024 pixels wide and shows where Jim Lovell would have
sat. This one item was worth the trip (to me).

Here is a collection of the various cameras used
during the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Skylab missions.

Historic Gloves
(big version)
As the sign said, "With these gloves, humans first held the soil of another
world. These are actual pressure gloves worn by Apollo 11 astronauts
Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin when they accomplished one of
humankind's greatest triumphs - the first landing on the Moon on July 20,
1969."

Question:
How does an astronaut tell time? Answer: If he's a NASA astronaut
and he's on the Moon, he looks at his Omega Speedmaster Professional. This
is the actual watch worn by Alan Sheppard on Apollo 14 - the fifth human to walk
on the Moon. Chuck Maddox has one
of the definitive sites concerning the history of this watch and I'd
recommend it to anyone. I reference it often. It's a great
watch. It has grandeur. If you want some history on how NASA
selected the Speedmaster for the space program, read on...

The Speedmaster in space

In 1964 NASA sent two employees out to
"incognito" purchase five reputable chronographs to be tested for
possible use in space. The Mercury program was almost complete and the coming
Gemini program with scheduled "space-walks" would require a watch
that could withstand the extreme conditions in space. After the first round of
tests two of the five brands were disqualified and after the second round
there was only one left... On September 29 1964 NASA ordered twelve
Speedmasters from the US Omega importer. They paid retail price, $82.50 for
the watches and wanted them delivered by October 21. Meanwhile NASA
arranged for a series of test to finally determine what watch to use in space.
The watches had to cope with:

High temperature: 48 hours at 71º C
followed by 30 minutes at 93º C. This under a pressure of 0.35atm and
relative humidity not over 15%.

Low temperature: Four hours at -18º C.

Temperature-pressure: 0.000001atm and
temperature raised to 71º C. Temperature then lowered to -18º C in 45
minutes and again raised to 71º C in 45 minutes. This cycle was repeated
fifteen times.

Relative humidity: 240 hours in relative
humidity of at least 95% and at temperatures varying between 20º C and 71º
C. The steam had a pH value of between 6.5 and 7.5.

Oxygen atmosphere: Exposure to 100% oxygen
atmosphere at a pressure of 0,35atm and a temperature of 71º C for 48
hours.

Shock: Six 11 millisecond shocks of 40g
each in six different directions.

Acceleration: Linear acceleration from 1g
to 7.25g within 3 seconds.

Decompression: 90 minutes in a vacuum of
0.000001atm and a temperature of 71º C and 30 minutes in the same vacuum
but at a temperature of 93ºC.

High pressure: Exposure to 1.6atm for one
hour.

Vibration: Three cycles of 30 minutes
(lateral, horizontal and vertical), the frequency varying from 5 to
2000cps and back to 5cps in 15 minutes. Average acceleration per impulse
8.8g.

Acoustic noise: 130db over a frequency
range from 40 to 10000Hz for 30 minutes.

The tests were completed on March 1, 1965.
Three chronographs from different manufacturers were still running, but only
the Speedmaster had passed without any of the serious troubles that had occurred
with the two others (twisted hands, warped crystals...). NASA stated:
"Operational and environmental tests of the three selected chronographs
have been completed, and, as a result of the test, Omega chronographs have
been calibrated and issued to three members of the GT-3 crews." The
"GT-3" (Gemini-Titan III) took off 04:52 March 23, 1964 with the
astronauts John Young and Virgil Grissom on board. On the next Gemini flight
(IV) Edward White left the capsule and became the first American to walk in
space. On his wrist was the Speedmaster.

Pete Conrad during Apollo 12. Notice the watch around his left
elbow. There was also a Playboy centerfold picture on that wrist
checklist, but that's another story.

Okay, enough about watches..... I
think it's been established that DOUG LIKES OMEGA SPEEDMASTERS.

Back to the museum.

Moon rock:
This rock was brought back by Neil and Buzz in '69. I'm thinking it's
priceless, which might account for the, like, three layers of bulletproof
glass.

One of the $6,000,000 rovers built.

We called the number that Wells Aircraft gave
us and one of the line guys came and picked us back up. What
service. We even had another cookie! We got some gas, climbed in,
and scooted up to 7,500 where the air was cooler (it was 100 on the
ground). The afternoon Sun had created a few big TCB's. We enjoyed
the shade when we were under them.

Turning base at GLE, where we stopped for avgas and chicken fried steak at The
Smokehouse.

We
decided to get gas again at GLE ($1.79 at GLE, $2.79 at HUT) and since it was
around 6:00pm in the evening decided to go into town using the the airport
courtesy car and get some food. Apparently Red Marron's FAVORITE place
to eat in Gainesville is The Smokehouse. We gave it a shot and I
must admit it was not bad at all. My glass of tea was about 10"
tall and was exactly what I needed. I needed about three. The car
reminded me of the car in The Blues Brothers. When I climbed in I
said, "We're on a mission.................a mission from God!"
Here we are polishing it up and checking the tires. Eight cylinders (I
think almost all of them worked). I particularly liked the subtle labeling.

Tanks and stomachs full and bladders empty
found us back in the plane about an hour later. It was a short hop of about
25 minutes to where Alex keeps his plane hangered at GKY. The Sun was
beginning to get low on the western horizon as one incredible day came to a
close. Fifteen minutes and I was back in the car on my way to the house
where baby duty and dirty dishes awaited. Time to turn back into 'an
adult'. Rats. I can't wait to do this in my own RV-6.(last pic very big)

We covered around 800 statute miles in a day
over three states. For me it was one of those days you remember
forever. It tied together two of my passions, aviation and astronomy, so
nicely I couldn't have crafted a better script if I had a year to do it.
Those of us lucky enough to be building and flying these wonderful machines
are a truly blessed bunch.

Jay Pratt runs RV Central
- a RV builder assistance facility in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. His
number is (817) 271-0594.
Alex DeDominicis is a CFI/CFII and is listed in the 'Transition Training'
section of this site. He can be reached at (817) 798-0419.